Joshua 9
Notes
Transcript
At the end of chapter 8 last week, we kind of breezed through the altar scene
half of the people on mt ebal (cursings) and half on mt Gerizim (blessings)
Deuteronomy is a summation of the laws that God gave to the Israelites at Sinai
These are located in Deuteronomy 28-30
2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.
3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.
6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
Joshua = great for defending the historical veracity of Scripture (touched on this last week)
We see this scene, describing an altar made of all rocks and no iron. that’s what we’ve found
bones and ashes found at the altar, which all fit the Hebrew diet (no pigs or unclean animals)
it says Joshua read all the words of the law, according to what was written
this is important because it goes against the “mainstream” theory of how the OT came to be - docu hypothesis
DH = the OT was only oral tradition until the Babylonian exile (586 BC) and that it went through several waves of editing during the exile
Joshua takes place ~1200’s BC give or take
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The DH hypothesis even says that the Israelites didn’t even have written language in Joshua’s time, or if they did, it was very crude/little
We talked about Jericho, and how new research is finding evidence of destruction at the time when Joshua was going through
all the geographic evidence like towns and people in Joshua fit the time period
Once again, we see the Bible believing Christian vindicated through the evidence
you might say “Why is this important?”
some people try to say that the OT events never happened, and the Bible is just legends or highly exaggerated
this evidence can strongly fight their claim, and it’s our duty to defend the faith
it shows God’s amazing work through history
at the end of the day, the altar scene shows that after the Israelites victories and progress so far, that they reaffirmed their faith in God, gave thanks and were refreshed on all the law.
1 And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof;
2 That they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.
3 And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai,
So the Israelites fame from defeating Jericho and Ai had spread all the way to the coast and up to lebanon, who had some great cities such as Tyre, the Hittites were also a great people inhabiting most of anatolia, and could likely send reinforcements if needed
suffice to say, this is a large coalition of armies, essentially everyone around them save egypt, who was experiencing economic problems partially due to the exodus
this is similar to when napoleon bonaparte was conquering europe and basically all of the rest of europe made a coalition against him
so these guys felt threatened and rose up to fight Joshua
4 They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;
5 And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy.
6 And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us.
so they came up with a scheme, acting like poor people from a distant land, seeking to make an alliance with them
the reality was that they were doing fine, and were from cities not near as far away as they make it out to be
so, they lied, they schemed, they came up with a lie to try to avoid consequence
we’ve all done this, it’s almost intrinsic to our human nature
we have to remember that all of this stuff has consequences however, and God does see everything.
7 And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you?
8 And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye?
9 And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the Lord thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt,
11 Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us.
12 This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy:
13 And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey.
14 And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord.
15 And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.
They say that they came because the name of the Lord, which is not true obviously
this lie is especially treacherous because now they are invoking God’s name into the equation
you shall not take the name of the Lord they God in vein
we’ve seen examples in history of this being a bit of a dangerous thing to do
titanic, john lennon,
victuals = food/provisions
We see that the Israelites, like when they attacked Ai the first time, did not ask the counsel of God
asking the counsel of God is the wise thing to do in all our life, He is the mighty counselor, after all
God should be at the forefront of our decision making, as He helps us through life, is wise, and is willing to help us
what a blessing that we have such a merciful God, and a God that helps us through life, that we can come boldly to the throne of Grace
We see that Joshua made peace with these people from the “distant land” and spared them
importantly, we see that they swore upon this peace, and oaths were understood to be in front of God
the implication being that this oath is a big deal, and that you could be held responsible for the oath by God if you lie or don’t hold up your end
interestingly, this concept was still going strong by the time of the founding fathers, at one time people swore on the Bible in court and it was implied you were swearing before God, since He sees everything
certain denominations had a problem with swearing on the Bible, which birthed the oath, so they didn’t have to swear on the Bible
so being under oath was serious business
we see now that being under oath is essentially meaningless to most people now and it’s routine to lie without consequences
the point being, God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, He is everywhere, knows everything, and exists outside of time/eternal, He permeates the universe
He knows our thoughts, our intentions, our hearts, thank goodness He’s given us a path to be forgiven and for our hearts to be changed and renewed.
16 And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt among them.
17 And the children of Israel journeyed, and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim.
18 And the children of Israel smote them not, because the princes of the congregation had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel. And all the congregation murmured against the princes.
They told the lie, but they were quickly found out
WHOOPS!
They came to the cities, but what do we see, they did NOT attack them and why? because they’d swore the oath to them
they were honest, they were keeping their word. this stuff is actually important, not keeping our word is a lie
look how different things were back then, or when you have a people who are close to God
they actually care about keeping their word, something that really seems absent from today’s world
22 And Joshua called for them, and he spake unto them, saying, Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you; when ye dwell among us?
23 Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.
24 And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the Lord thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing.
25 And now, behold, we are in thine hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do.
26 And so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not.
27 And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose.
Joshua says to them, “Why’d you trick us? You were a three day’s journey away, that’s a bit of a long way” we see here that a three days journey was seen as a good bit away, especially in Israel, which is roughly as big as new jersey
Joshua “sentences” them to being slaves, wood choppers and water gatherers for the house of God
To answer why they’d lied, they said they were scared, because they knew the Israelites were coming to take the land
one can’t help but wonder now, how might this have played out if they hadn’t lied? it’s quite possible that they would have just had to move and find a new city. perhaps they would have been killed during the conquest, but as we’ve discussed before the inhabitants of the land were under judgement by God during the conquest
They submitted to Joshua, because what else were the really going to do at this point. they had painted themselves into a corner via their lies
we see a good bit of imagery here as well
they lied, they tried to deceive the israelites, and lying is probably one of the most common and destructive sins
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
there is interesting imagery in this, they became a slave because of their sin
without Christ, we are a slave to our sin
addictions, of any kind, are an easy example. one is a slave to their human desires
if you are a liar, you are a slave to the lying
ripples in the water illustrations
room set on fire illustration
hurricane/tornado starts as a small bit of wind/weather
lies destroy trust, look at a marriage, once the trust is gone, it changes everything
the truth is powerful, it keeps things grounded in reality, and is pleasing to God
lies sow discord, distrust, and poisons social groups, over things that aren’t even true!
it’s selfish and very destructive, often for short term supposed benefits
the end result ends up worse than just dealing with the truth
you will have to deal with the consequences at some point, and you’ll answer to God for it
by the grace of God, we have Christ to help us, to renew us, to forgive us and reconcile us to God
we need to be made new creatures, the potter needs to mold His clay, and don’t forget, He has the right to the clay
He made us, we are beautifully and wonderfully made, He knew us before we were in the womb
He wants us to be in league with Him, to be whole, to be reconciled to Him, we all like sheep have gone astray
but in Him we can have love, forgiveness, peace, renewal
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
